1git-format-patch(1) 2=================== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git-format-patch' [-k] [-o <dir> | --stdout] [--thread] 13 [--attach[=<boundary>] | --inline[=<boundary>]] 14 [-s | --signoff] [<common diff options>] 15 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 16 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 17 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 18 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 19 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 20 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 21 22DESCRIPTION 23----------- 24 25Prepare each commit with its patch in 26one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 27The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 28for use with gitlink:git-am[1]. 29 30There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 31 321. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 33 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 34 that leads to the <since> to be output. 35 362. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 37 REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]) means the 38 commits in the specified range. 39 40A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range> 41expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but 42if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule 43applies to that command line and you do not get "everything 44since the beginning of the time". If you want to format 45everything since project inception to one commit, say "git 46format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the 47latter case. 48 49By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 50first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 51the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names 52will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 53The names of the output files are printed to standard 54output, unless the --stdout option is specified. 55 56If -o is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 57they are created in the current working directory. 58 59If -n is specified, instead of "[PATCH] Subject", the first line 60is formatted as "[PATCH n/m] Subject". 61 62If given --thread, git-format-patch will generate In-Reply-To and 63References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 64as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to 65reference. 66 67OPTIONS 68------- 69include::diff-options.txt[] 70 71-<n>:: 72 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 73 74-o|--output-directory <dir>:: 75 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 76 current working directory. 77 78-n|--numbered:: 79 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format. 80 81-N|--no-numbered:: 82 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 83 84--start-number <n>:: 85 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 86 87--numbered-files:: 88 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 89 without the default first line of the commit appended. 90 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 91 92-k|--keep-subject:: 93 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 94 commit log message. 95 96-s|--signoff:: 97 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 98 the committer identity of yourself. 99 100--stdout:: 101 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 102 instead of creating a file for each one. 103 104--attach[=<boundary>]:: 105 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 106 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 107 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 108 109--inline[=<boundary>]:: 110 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 111 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 112 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 113 114--thread:: 115 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 116 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 117 the Message-Id header to reference. 118 119--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 120 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 121 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 122 provide a new patch series. 123 124--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 125 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 126 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 127 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 128 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 129 ignored. 130 131--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 132 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 133 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 134 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 135 combined with the --numbered option. 136 137--suffix=.<sfx>:: 138 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 139 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 140 `--suffix=.txt`. 141+ 142Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 143want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 144the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 145not add any suffix. 146 147CONFIGURATION 148------------- 149You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 150in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 151and file suffix, and number patches when outputting more than one. 152 153------------ 154[format] 155 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 156 subjectprefix = CHANGE 157 suffix = .txt 158 numbered = auto 159------------ 160 161 162EXAMPLES 163-------- 164 165git-format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git-am -3 -k:: 166 Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply 167 them on top of the current branch using `git-am` to 168 cherry-pick them. 169 170git-format-patch origin:: 171 Extract all commits which are in the current branch but 172 not in the origin branch. For each commit a separate file 173 is created in the current directory. 174 175git-format-patch \--root origin:: 176 Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the 177 inception of the project. 178 179git-format-patch -M -B origin:: 180 The same as the previous one. Additionally, it detects 181 and handles renames and complete rewrites intelligently to 182 produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces the 183 amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to 184 review it. Note that the "patch" program does not 185 understand renaming patches, so use it only when you know 186 the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 187 188git-format-patch -3:: 189 Extract three topmost commits from the current branch 190 and format them as e-mailable patches. 191 192See Also 193-------- 194gitlink:git-am[1], gitlink:git-send-email[1] 195 196 197Author 198------ 199Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 200 201Documentation 202-------------- 203Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 204 205GIT 206--- 207Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite